(Technical Field)
The present invention relates to an automatic driving system for an automatically driven vehicle and particularly to a technique for enabling automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle in a parking lot.
(Related Art)
Some techniques for automatically driving a vehicle have become increasingly practical. For example, in a known technique as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2014-102750, a fixed station has a map stored therein of a controlled area where a vehicle is allowed to be driven automatically. The fixed station sequentially receives travel data from an automatic driving unit mounted in the vehicle. Based on the received travel data and the map of the controlled area, the fixed station keeps track of a location of the vehicle carrying the automatic driving unit and directs the vehicle to a target location in the controlled area.
As with a manned vehicle, a driverless or automatically driven vehicle has to travel while avoiding other vehicles in an environment of the automatically driven vehicle. Without traffic rules, a vehicle could travel freely, but it would be difficult to avoid the other vehicles in the environment without more accurately monitoring the other vehicles in the environment and more accurately driving the vehicle as compared with in the presence of the traffic rules. For such a reason, various traffic rules have been enacted.
However, generally, a parking lot is a privately-owned area, to which the traffic rules are not applied. Thus, a vehicle traveling in the parking lot may be reckless. In addition, there may often be pedestrians in the lanes of the parking lot. A stationary object, such as baggage or an unattended cart, may often be placed in a lane of the parking lot. Therefore, driving in the parking lot necessitates more accurate driving while more accurately monitoring the environment of the vehicle as compared with driving on a highway.
Accordingly, when the automatically driven vehicle is automatically driven in the parking lot, the reliability of automatic driving tends to be reduced as compared with when the automatically driven vehicle is automatically driven on a highway.
In consideration of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to providing an automatic driving system for an automatically driven vehicle, capable of increasing the reliability of automatic driving of the automatically driven vehicle in a parking lot.